


Over the Garden Wall: Hard Times at the Huskin' Bee

by earthkidsareweird



Series: Over the Garden Wall But With Reddie [2]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King, Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon & Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Over the Garden Wall Fusion, Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier Are Best Friends, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier-centric, M/M, Minor Bill Denbrough/Richie Tozier, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie Tozier is a Little Shit, The Unknown (Over the Garden Wall)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:21:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22580935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/earthkidsareweird/pseuds/earthkidsareweird
Summary: So Richie and Eddie are still lost when they befriend a small bluebird named Beverly. She wants them to visit the good woman of the woods, but Richie points out they have a better and closer town option.Pottsfield, which looks super cute until they realize it's full of pumpkin people.It's Over the Garden Wall but with Reddie and Part 2.
Relationships: Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: Over the Garden Wall But With Reddie [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1621285
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	1. I.

**Author's Note:**

> Sort of character list:
> 
> Eddie=Writ (ish)  
> Richie=Greg (ish)  
> Bev=Beatrice
> 
> Bill is mentioned.

# I.

There is apparently no way to tell the difference between trees. Richie and Eddie are still stuck walking among trees. They’ve slowed down a bit after walking for so long. At least, the two know they’re maybe headed in the right direction, thanks to all the smoke from the mill behind them. 

Eddie is so close to saying, _What do you think was in that lantern?_ He’d been inside when Mike lost it. Watched it fall from his hand after the monster dog clipped his side and dove out a window. By then the place was already on fire and the lantern added a bit, but the way Mike had stared at it made it look as if somebody died.

Richie beats him to talking with a different question, “Did coyotes ever exist?”

“Um. . .what?” responds Eddie almost losing his step. He trips over his own feet, but Richie catches him in that split second. “Thanks,” he ends up muttering after Richie releases him. Eddie watches Richie pass him by like this never happened. He does an awkward little hop to catch up with Richie, a little too short for this whole lost mess they’re stuck in.

“I’ve just never seen a coyote before, but I’ve seen dogs and I’ve seen _White Fang_ , I’ve seen whatever that was back there, but not a coyote.”

Eddie hesitates for a bit letting Richie keep walking while considering these last words. “Ok, first, don’t you think that’s because we live in Maine?”

“Huh. Yeah. Maybe.” Richie shrugs as Eddie catches up. “What’s the other thing?”

“What do you mean you’ve seen _White Fang_? Do you mean _Call of the Wild_? That’s not even about a wolf, it’s about a Saint Bernard.”

Richie looks at him fixing his glasses. “Oh wait, I read it so it was like seeing the wolf for real because books are movies for the brain.”

“When did you become such a fucking nerd?”

While walking, Eddie looks at the ground, his cheeks are red and he pretends to fix his hair so Richie doesn’t notice but Richie never notices anything even with barely anything to distract him out there. It’s been kind of nice just being quiet together, which is such a weird and stupid thought. Again, Eddie decides to ask Richie his question, _What do you think was in that lantern?_ Something is very, very wrong. There was all the singing in the woods, which isn’t ok then the black turtles crawling around not to mention a werewolf tried to eat them. Then something must have bothered Richie because he’s not been himself as if a body snatcher plucked his obnoxious brain out.

Right when Eddie opens his mouth to bring up the lantern ordeal something else interrupts him. 

“HELP! HELP! ANYBODY! HELP!”

Richie stops looking for where the sound is coming from right as Eddie twirls around on his heel ready to head back where they came from. 

“We should go,” Eddie comments.

“Where? Not home?!” Richie walks forward still listening until he realizes a bird struggling in a bush. 

“Help me!” the bird yelps. “If you get me out of there, I’ll do you a favor.”

“Fucking sweet.” Richie kneels down looking at the bird. He looks back at Eddie. “A genie bird!”

“No, that’s not, I said favor. . .FAVOR!”

“How many wishes do I get and can I wish for more wishes and if I can’t can I wish that I can grant myself unlimited wishes?” asks Richie as he helps untangle the bird from the bush and she flies upwards a bit. “Ah wait, we know you, don’t we?”

“Yeah, it’s Beverly.”

“Feather lice,” is Eddie’s response.

“Don’t mind him, he’s fucking rude, and I’m Richie.”

Bev lands on a branch to steady herself while watching the two. “What can I do for you? I can’t grant wishes, I’m not magic!”

“Well that’s stupid, I’m gonna throw you back in the bush.”

Eddie rolls his eyes and starts to walk again ignoring the two go back and forth. His friend is actually yelling at a bird and worse he’s yelling at a talking bird. After about five steps, Eddie realizes there’s a small sign tucked away next to a tree trunk. He wipes some vines away from it to see it says, Pottsfield, with an arrow pointing them forward in the same direction with one mile listed.

“Hey guys!” Eddie points at it looking at them. “Guys? Hey guys!”

“Do you even know how to stop talking?” Beverly snaps at Richie.

“No, Beaverly, I don’t!”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re a bird, not a beaver!”

If birds could roll eyes, Beverly would be up there rolling her eyes at this comment. “That’s not even an insult, do you know what an insult is?”

“Yeah, Eddie’s mom. Wait till you meet her, you’ll see unless you’ve seen a dictionary ‘cause her picture is the definition.”

Eddie raises his voice. “GUYS!” The two look over at him. “There’s a town two miles away.”

“Is it Derry?” responds Richie.

“No, but it’s Pottsfield.”

Richie tosses his hands up. “What? I don’t even know what that means.”

“It’s the town that’s a mile away,” corrects Eddie.

Beverly lands on Richie’s shoulder looking at Eddie and whispers, “He’s worse than you.”

This gets Richie to chuckle and whisper back, “That’s why we love him.”

“We?” Beverely even does a little wing shrug.

“Hm, I guess just me.” Richie walks over to Eddie while Beverly remains on his shoulder. “Do you think they’re named Pottsfield because they sell pot?”

This only gets a glare from Eddie as he carries on in the same direction with the two keeping in sync with him. The trio keeps quiet while the forest around them is quiet. There’s quite a bit to go. The closer they get though, the more antsy Beverly gets, and it’s hard for Richie to see her, she’s right out of line of his sight, right where the big, black rims of his glasses block his view of her.

“If you shit, please take it to not on my shoulder.”

“I just feel like. . .I live here and don’t know what Pottsfield is,” replies Beverly getting Eddie to stop. The two look at her or really just Eddie since Richie’s glasses are in the way. It’s not like it’ll help him see if he takes off his glasses. “We should go to Adelaide.”

“What is Adelaide?” asks Eddie.

“The question is where and the answer is Australia,” replies Richie. 

“Ok, I’m not going to touch that. I don’t even know what an Australia is, but Adelaide is the Good Woman of the Woods. She can help you find where you’re from.”

“Derry?” asks Eddie.

“Like from a cow?”

“No, D-E-R-R-Y, it’s where we live.”

“I kinda wanna go to Pottsfield first because we’re basically there already.” Richie interrupts Eddie and Beverly to point at some smoke rising up before them. Not much, not like the fire they’re walking away from but the normal sort from a campfire or a chimney. “I’m starving and I’m into plumbing.”

“Ok, but I’m sure Adelaide can help with that, too,” continues Richie, “but where’s Adelaide? Not right here, and you know what is right here, Pottsfield.”

“I’m going to Pottsfield, too.”

It’s Eddie who says this last before he walks after Pottsville ignoring Beverly. She flies away from Richie to land on his shoulder but he swats at her and she is stuck flying above their heads. Richie shrugs and follows her because none of them are going to follow Beverly to this apparent Adelaide. The closer they get the more buildings they start to spot. Little homes crouching between the trees much different from the mill. They’re cottages that are snuggled close to one another there.

A little picket sign simply states: Pottsfield. 

There are about twenty of the cottages with a larger wooden building in the middle of all them. Their chimneys are chugging away releasing smoke into the sky. None of the houses have closed doors, and all are wide open. There’s food set up along some tables, but not the sort that somebody is about to eat. Instead, it’s wheat, pumpkins, beets, carrots, and more food waiting out on them to be washed and stored away for everybody to eat at a later time. 

“Oh look at that, nobody’s home. We should see Adelaide instead because I bet she’s home,” says Beverly, real quick.

“Ah, shut up, Beverly.” Richie looks around at the cutesy little cottages. They even have little straw roofs. Not a single person is walking around even with all their food out. Even with all the cottages open wide, there’s no movement inside as if all the people faded away.

“Hello!” Eddie starts to shout walking ahead of them.

Still Beverly is fluttering around. “Call me Bev, by the way.”

“I hate vegetables,” Richie mutters moving towards one of the tables.

Behind him somebody starts to shout, he snaps around to see Eddie stumbling forward not noticing as his feet crush some pumpkins. He’s standing there with their guts all over his ankles and feet. Eddie looks up looking like he’s about to puke and he gawks at Richie.

“What?” Richie picks a carrot off the table and bites off a bit of it. “There’s twenty ways that pumpkins can kill, isn’t there?” He takes another bite from his carrot.

Eddie shakes his head.

“Fuck. No? More? Twenty-three ways to die by pumpkin?”

“Beep, beep, Richie!” Eddie attempts to kick off one of the pumpkins. The guts slink off his pant legs and he’s practically snarling at it so disgusted by it all. “No, no! I don’t have spare shoes! And we’re lost! No!” He begins to shake his head and goes to shake the other pumpkin off and it rolls away only for him to notice feet there. Eddie looks up to see they’re not alone.

In fact, they’re far alone, again.

Richie comes up a little closer with Bev landing on his shoulder again. Richie touches Eddie’s elbow, standing about as close as possible while the to stare at what appears to be a pumpkin person, not one pumpkin person, but several pumpkin people. It looks like they’re wearing the outer layers of corn as clothes and have hair. They’re standing there with eyes that really are more like holes in their faces.

Bev whispers to Richie, “We should run.”

“No, I’m kinda interested in what’s going to happen next,” he replies.

None of the pumpkin people move while staring at them. Richie continues to hold onto Eddie’s elbow, maybe he should tug at his arm to pull him away from the scene. Neither of them move. They’re too busy gawking at the pumpkin strangers.

“Do you think we can go home now?” Eddie asks.

Richie shakes his head. “No, I’m pretty sure we’re about to be murdered.”

But Bev gets the last word in while she still sits on Richie’s shoulder, “Should’ve gone to Adelaide’s.”


	2. II.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie and Bev bicker. Richie and Eddie bicker. Enter Enoch.

# II.

One of the pumpkin people moves much closer to Eddie to the point, he can see she has no eyes tucked away inside her eye holes. Such a contrast to those Easter Bunnies at the mall with eyeballs in his mouth. The rest of the pumpkin people stay put facing them. There are even ones with instruments, but none of them played letting silence to take over. Just pumpkin people staring with casual harvest-themed food spread across the table begging to bring up the question of: _Do pumpkin people eat pumpkin?_

The first pumpkin person moves so slow with corn husk pigtails bob as she reaches down grabbing onto Eddie’s calf. He says nothing and no thanks to Richie or Bev who also remain silent. It’s impossible to tell if they’re even paying attention cause Eddie is all distracted while looking down. The pumpkin person has her hand on Eddie as she lifts his foot from the pumpkin he stepped in, which brings up another question: _Was that your cousin?_

It’s as if she reads his mind. “We’re only in costume.”

Eddie’s leg is all slimy with seed guts smothering his feet. He does nothing as she helps him from the other pumpkin. Both make such a squish sound he ignores it because more important is the fact his feet are now soaking wet with vegetable guts. Yeah, maybe nobody died that way but there is always somebody who can casually make history with a first. Eddie imagines himself saying thanks to the pumpkin person.

She takes a step back and even when she talks her mouth doesn’t move. Still no sign of eyeballs or lips behind her so-called pumpkin costume. “You shouldn’t be here, you’re twenty-seven years too early.”

“That is. . .a very specific amount of years,” Eddie does whisper, for real.

The rest of the pumpkin people whirl away back into their festival looking at the activities of laughing and dancing. They’re chatting with still mouths and the ones who play instruments return to providing some catchy folksy music with some pumpkin people singing along as if everybody should know the words. It’s no song Eddie ever heard but somehow sounds like one maybe his grandparents might have sung if he ever had grandparents.

“So. . .do you have. . .a name?” Eddie asks the pumpkin person who continues to stand in front of him.

“You shouldn’t be here. . .” she starts again.

Eddie groans. “I get it, I heard you, I’m specifically twenty-nine years too early or whatever that means.”

“Twenty-seven,” she corrects.

If Eddie weren’t interrupted, he would have let her know, _I don’t like that_. For a change though, it’s Bev who ruins the moment or so it seems because she is over somewhere shouting. It takes Eddie a second to realize what she’s shouting, “Richie! Don’t you! RICHIE! Don’t you dare!”

When Eddie looks over, he has to lean almost off-balance to look between dancing pumpkin people to see Richie wrestling with one of them who is playing an actual trumpet compared to maybe a gourd or whatever a real pumpkin might play. Bev flies in quick circles above him still shouting, growing louder as Richie starts to join.

“Uh. . .you’ll have to excuse me,” Eddie says and runs after him.

The pumpkin person grabs onto Eddie’s arm and he looks at her. “You’re all here too early.”

“What? They don’t get a specific. . .date?”

She turns her attention to Richie and Bev. “They’ll join us one day.”

Eddie pulls away rubbing his arm to brush the creepiness off. His feet are askew in his shoes, seed guts slipping through his toes with nowhere to go thanks to his shoes. He hops shaking them as if this will help better the situation, but it doesn’t, of course. His sneakers are tied too tight and are now collecting dirt along the way mixing with the orangish slime. 

“Get your friend to behave!” Bev yells down at Eddie.

“He’s not my friend, he’s my. . .I’ll-I’ll think of an insult later.” 

Richie loses the trumpet and collapses. The pumpkin person ‘glares’ at him, it’s impossible to tell but he marches away as Richie gets up. He looks at Bev and Eddie. “What? I wanted to serenade Bev for her beauty?”

“Oh, _you_ wanted to serenade _Bev_?” snaps Eddie not really sure how to stand right without looking ridiculous or what to do with his hands. Any time he moves, it’s all squish, squish, squishes. If the pumpkins are heads of the people then does that mean brains are stuck in his shoes instead of guts? Gray matter peeling apart but in the color of orange?

“What? I can’t serenade you?” retorts Richie. “You’re not beautiful. Defeats the whole point of a serenade.”

Eddie rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. “I don’t think you know what that word means.”

Bev lands on Richie’s shoulder. “I think he’s jealous.”

“Of your beauty,” adds Richie with a chuckle.

“No! Nooooo! I’m not _jealous_ of Bev’s beauty! She’s a bird!”

“Jesus Christ, Eddie, do you kiss your mom with that mouth? Birds are beautiful.”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Stop it! I’m not even a bird!” snaps Bev. “I’m a bird now or I was turned into a bird, my dad turned me into a bird with the help of a witch so I wouldn’t fly away from him so jokes on him but anyway, I’m a human as in a beautiful human girl who is currently a beautiful bird.”

Most of the pumpkin people have appeared to return to their normal lives of celebrating their food leaving the trio to themselves even with them in the middle of it all. Trumpet playing pumpkin person does continue to glare at Richie though who smirks and flips him off before fixing his glasses.

Bev leaps off Richie’s shoulder to hover between the two. “I think we should go to Adelaide’s.”

“But I’m hungry,” protests Richie. “There’s literally food everywhere, even the people here are food.” This gathers a bit too much attention. One couple stops singing to look at Richie, no change in expression. None of their faces move, which isn’t comforting at all. “It’s ok, I don’t eat pumpkin.”

“I’m sure Adelaide has food and she can help you get home. Isn’t that all you want?”

“Ok but hear me out, Bev.” Richie side steps toward one of the tables ready to pluck a squash from it. He instead snatches corn. “There’s food right here. And where is Adelaide? Not here.”

“Or you hear me out, Richie because you can take corn on the go! We can take food and find Adelaide.”

“Why do you even want to find Adelaide so bad? What if somebody here knows how we can get back to Derry?” Richie turns to the couple who continue to stare at him. “Hello sirs, do you happen to know where Derry is located? We’re lost.”

“We can tell,” they reply in unison.”

“Ooook, but where is Derry?” continues Richie. “I don’t need to know I look lost, I know I look lost, I’m better looking than all of you.”

“See! Adelaide would know, I’m sure of it. We have to go! Please!”

Richie tosses his hands up having enough with this, he almost loses the corn stalk but manages to keep a hold of it as he looks over at Bev pushing his glasses back into place. “Oh my God, please just shut the fuck up. You don’t even know if Adelaide can help us, you just said it yourself and we’re here, we’re in a good place. And I bet they have plumbing. I love plumbing, not trees.” At this, Richie returns to the couple. “Hey, you got plumbing, right?”

One of them directs Richie’s attention to an outhouse.

“Shit! Nobody wants to shit in that.” Yet when he looks at Bev, he informs her, “They have a bathroom, that’s better than a tree so I’m not leaving.”

“I am.” Eddie breaks into their bickering. He cuts right in by saying, “I’m leaving. We can’t stay here.”

More of the pumpkin people come to a halt and the one pumpkin person who helped Eddie earlier comes toward them, she tilts her head to the side a little. “Leave? That doesn’t make sense. You’re all early, but still, folks tend to not pass through Pottsfield here. It’s nice here.”

“I mean, is it because all you have is an outhouse?” comments Richie taking a bite of corn and wrinkling his nose at it. “This is terrible.”

“That’s because it’s not cooked, idiot,” retorts Bev.

Eddie grabs onto Richie’s free hand to pull him away. “Sorry, we've gotta leave now. To go somewhere else better. We have to get home.” The entire time Eddie awkwardly pulls on Richie to get him to budge but the pumpkin people are so distracting with their big black eyeball-less eyes. “So. Bye. Thanks.” He adds in such a whisper, “ _Richard_!”

Another pumpkin looks startled, he’s old with the edges of his eyes growing soft. “Eh? What? What was that? Did I hear someone say leave?”

The pumpkin person points at the trio. “They said they want to leave.”

“Who? Who wants to leave Pottsfield?” the older pumpkin shouts shutting down all the sounds and so many blank eyes turn to them. “Who said that? They said that?”

“I think we should leave right away. . .” mutters Bev taking flight but Richie and Eddie don’t have a chance to escape as the pumpkin people surround them muttering to themselves. It’s easy to pick up the word leave yet always as a question rather than a command.

“He tried to take my trumpet!” shouts the one pumpkin person pointing at Richie.

“I was borrowing it! You know what borrow means, right? Because I can explain.”

“And he stole our crops!” another pumpkin person shouts pointing at Richie.

Richie looks at the corn. “Um yeah, ok, you got me there. I can’t return that one, but I’ll pick new corn or pay you!” He reaches into his pocket and all he has is some arcade token, which he drops out of sight. “So turns out that I’m fucking poor so there’s that. Bring it up with my dad.”

The older pumpkin person isn’t having it and yells over his shoulder, “Enoch, what shall we do with them?” His comment is followed by a chorus of _Enoch_ , _Enoch_ , _Enoch_ , which is not a good name for anybody in any century.

Bev just flies off without further comment. Richie watches her escape towards the treetops. He turns around seeing that she doesn’t appear to be coming back. He pushes his glasses back into place allow while Eddie begins to tug at his sleeve.

“Guess we won’t be going to Adelaide’s.”

“No, Richie. . .we should’ve gone to Adelaide’s.”

Richie looks back still facing the woods. Eddie never stops tugging at his shirt sleeve as he gawks at something, but for a moment Richie is too distracted by the way one pumpkin person steps away from another creating a path for something, the what though. He looks up seeing a shadow tower above them ass as some new creature enters the scene. He looks more like a pumpkin head on a pole with billowing clothes around him, some meant more for a scarecrow. Richie gawks up at this newcomer.

Still, the pumpkin people are all muttering _Enoch_ , _Enoch_ , _Enoch_.

The creature stops wobbling around faster than the wind is blowing while looking down at the two. Eddie stops tugging on Richie’s sleeve but holds tight. This creature who has to be Enoch the Enoch of whispering choirs. He’s so up high and stays there in silence watching as one by one the pumpkin people stop whispering, _Enoch_. None of this is ok. None of this is going to be ok.

And Enoch speaks in such a quiet voice. One made up of hairs prickling along your spine. “Now, let’s see here, boys. How did you end up in this little town of ours?”

Richie moves a whole lot closer to Eddie who doesn’t let go of his sleeve. The path for Enoch closes in trapping them together. The two are surrounded and even if they were to run, there’s nowhere to run but back into the forest where kids are left on their own to cling to lanterns, where black turtles crawl, birds use human words, wolves in Derry football shirts run, and It lurks, not that Richie or Eddie know about this final fact yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I had a lot of fun writing this and hope you enjoy this as much as I did and I hope you stick around to enjoy future events because I'm really exciting about how I want this installment to end.
> 
> If you like it, pls drop a comment even if it's like just a smile.


	3. III.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie and Eddie are sentenced to some manual labor oh and there's some skeletons.

# III.

Eddie and Richie stay put as Enoch leans back and forth while looking down at them. All while the rest of the pumpkin people stare with such empty eyes. Richie ends up looking over at Eddie rather than at Enoch. He pulls Eddie’s hand from his sleeve and steps forward looking back up at their new creature fiend.

“Hello, my name is Richard Tozier and this is my comrade in arms, Edward Kaspbrak, and we are two kind children who happen to be passing through town on our way home. Now while we were on our way home, we got hungry and saw your houses and thought, _Hey look, normal people_ , but where we come from pumpkins are not people.” Richie pauses and looks back at Eddie smiling and nodding while Eddie shakes his head not wanting to be apart of this. Richie looks up at Enoch. “We’ll be on our way.”

“I’m sorry if I stepped on two pumpkins, I hope they weren’t your friends,” Eddie pipes up again grabbing onto Richie’s arm. “C’mon. _Richie_!” He manages to grab onto Richie’s hand about to pull him away. “We gotta also find Bev.”

There’s no open path for them to escape by, but Eddie continues to hold Richie’s hand anyway.

“Now, let me understand the following,” Enoch still talks but in such a low voice, “you came into our town, you trample our crops, you attempt to steal our instruments, you interrupt our private engagement, and now you want to leave?”

“Yes. . .please. . .” Eddie says clinging to Richie to pull him away. “Thank you!”

“I apologize, as well, Mr. Enoch, but we did not trample on your crops or steal any of your instruments and you have no evidence to say that we did and you cannot convict us.”

“Convict us?! What the fuck are you talking about, Richie?!” Eddie snaps his attention back to Enoch. “Um sorry for his behavior, he’s an embarrassment.”

“That’s not what your mom said last night.”

The muttering starts up again before returning into a sing-song chorus of _Enoch_ , _Enoch_ , _Enoch_. The pumpkin people move in a ripple as some are peeled away from their previous spot to let one through. It’s the first pumpkin person returning to them holding onto Bev as she squirms in an attempt to leave while she squeaks unable to make an escape.

“You! You let me go! Let me GO!” screams Bev. “Or I’ll eat your. . .something!”

Enoch shakes his head. “Children, please understand that it saddens me about you not wishing to stay here with us, particularly because I simply have to punish you for your transgressions.”

Bev stops putting up her fight to glare at Richie, mainly Richie. “I told you this was a bad idea! But no! You wouldn’t listen to me! You said you liked it here for plumbing and they don’t even have plumbing!”

“Hey! You shut up, Bev! Plumbing is important to humans! You take a shit every fifteen minutes and don’t even need a toilet.”

“I don’t poop every fifteen minutes! And again, I am a human girl who is currently a bird!”

Enoch isn’t about to have it with their bickering and speaks over them. His voice instead booms this time around. “So, by order of the Pottsfield Chamber of Commerce, I find you guilty of trespassing, destruction of property, disturbing the peace, an attempt at thievery, and _murder_.”

“MURDER!” both Richie and Bev shout in unison.”

“It was her!” Eddie shouts pointing at Bev. “She’s the murderer, I saw her, murder. . .somebody who was recently murdered.”

“Wooooooooooow!” Richie whispers to him. “You really threw her under the bus there.”

“No, um, no, I didn’t mean it like that,” protests Eddie, “it’s not what you think.” He whirls around to look at Enoch again hating all of this. Pumpkin people in the middle of the woods commenting on how they are all somehow there too early yet he had no idea Pottsfield existed until recently so it’d be tough to plan to go there at any point in life.

Enoch continues to speak. “Oh, no, not murder. But for those other crimes mentioned, I sentence you to a few hours of. . .manual labor.”

“Shit! What the fuck!” snaps Richie. “Why not just send us to prison for a few hours instead?”

“Beep, beep Richie!” snaps Eddie and Bev too this time around catching on. “Manual labor sounds great. We can do that. I can do that. I don’t know if Bev can do it because she doesn’t have hands. What are we going to do?”

It’s like no time passed and seconds later the trio is outside town holding onto shovels in a field. Corn slithers on the wind. Richie sits down picking at chains on his feet while Eddie follows the previous orders they were given of digging holes. Just dig three holes and they were to go free. In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t too bad. Right before he strikes the ground, he takes in a deep breath with the help of his inhaler and is off digging real fast. The dirt is loose making it easier.

One pumpkin person peers through the corn stalks at them getting Richie to stand and dig along side Eddie even though he complains under his breath the entire time. Meanwhile, Bev is on the ground also in chains, little bird chains, which begs the question, Why would they have bird chains?

“Why do you think they have you digging holes? That’s weird. Don’t you think that’s weird?” Bev says.

Richie pauses leaning into his shovel while Eddie continues to dig fast. “Um I’m sorry but you think anything is weird when it doesn’t involve Adelaide.”

“That’s not true and you know I’m only trying to help.”

“Do I? For all I know Adelaide is some beast in the woods.”

“You take that back, Richard Tozier!” snaps Bev. “She’s the good woman of the wood.”

“I don’t think you even know what that last word means!”

Eddie throws his hands up losing his shovel for a split second. “Stop bickering, you too!”

Richie looks at him. “You’re just jealous I’m not bickering with you!”

“I’m not jealous of that! That’s a stupid thing to be jealous of! Fuck you, Richie, I’m glad I’m not bickering with you.”

Bev shakes her head and sighs. “You’re both bickering now. You realize that, right?”

But Eddie goes back to digging while Richie dumps some dirt by Bev. “Bet you think there’d be less bickering if we were at Adelaide’s.”

“I’m trying to help!”

“I bet she’s a witch and she’s a witch who turned you into a bird with your dad.” 

Richie goes back to dig his hole like he was told leaving Bev to brew in so much silence. Again Richie pauses, he leans into his shovel ignoring how two pumpkins are now watching them from in between corn stalks all of which continue to slither in the wind. Another pumpkin person joins rolling over a pumpkin like one they stepped into up front of the town.

“Hey. . .” starts Richie looking at Bev. “I’m sorry for being an asshole.”

“We call him trashmouth for a reason,” Eddie says looking up for the first time from his digging. “It’s also because we hate him.”

Richie smirks. “He loves me.”

“Shut up, Richie! You know I don’t!” Eddie digs a little faster.

Bev looks over at Richie. “I don’t think he likes you period.”

“He does,” he whispers. “He loves.”

Bev changes the subject. “We really should go.”

“Yeah, no, you’re right, we should go,” Richie agrees.

“To Adelaide, the good woman of the wood.”

“To Adelaide’s.” Richie tosses his shovel to the side. “Ready, Eds?”

Eddie stabs the shovel blade into the ground hitting something hard not quite able to get the rock out of the way. He peers up at Richie still struggling to get the rock free. “Stop calling me, Eds!”

“Whatever, Eddie Spaghetti.” Richie sits at the top of his hole picking at a lock on his chain.

“That’s worse! Not that either!” Eddie uses this last bit of anger to pry whatever it is from the ground. A skull pops out, and it sure isn’t alone. There are more bones underneath him and Eddie loses his footing and collides with the side of the hole.

“Have the holes been dug?” A pumpkin person cuts into the moment. There’s so many of them, no longer hiding in the corn and with more pumpkins on the ground. 

Eddie can’t quite catch his breath as panic wins over his asthma. His inhaler fell out of his pocket and is on the ground, which he wants to grab but it's close to the skeletal fingertips of whoever he just found. “R-R-Richie!” But when he turns, Richie’s gone. Bev, too. He’s there in his hole unable to get up right as the skeleton’s fingertips begin to twitch and a shadow falls over him as Enoch creeps up into the scene.

Enoch sways over just Eddie and the skeletons which continues to tremble. A hand bursts through soil across from him. Richie had just been there, but no Richie is gone. Another hand bursts free as a different skeleton rises up, popping from the ground like some daisy.

Still Enoch sways and none of the pumpkin people add to the moment. “Ah, it appears, your time is up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that these are all just so dialogue-heavy.


	4. IV.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie might've abandoned Eddie in their escape from Pottsfield.

# IV.

There’s no sign of Richie and Bev. No fucking sign of Richie. No Richie! Eddie looks around again and again like that’ll help his Richie-less situation. His heart is beating too loud to hear anything being said. Enoch is talking, maybe. It’s tough to tell. Not like Enoch’s lips are moving or any of the other pumpkin people who can talk and talk all day long without moving lips. Eddie looks down as the skeleton wriggles free, it scrapes dirt from its bones and climbs on out with its joints stabbing the air. 

Still, Eddie stays in the hole he dug. “I made my own grave. I made my own grave,” he starts to whisper to himself stuck on repeat. “I made my own grave. They’ll bury me alive and I’ll suffocate. They’ll find my fingernails pried from my fingers and-and-and. . .” Again Eddie goes to look for Richie who of course is still missing. “Richie?” he whispers looking at the empty hole beside him.

“Thank you for digging up the life of the party!”

Eddie does hear this looking up and out of the hole to see one of the pumpkin people pointing at the skeleton now free from its apparent grave. Both skeletons continue to wriggle flicking dirt from their bodies.

“Welcome back, Larry!” a pumpkin person says to the skeleton as he comes over plopping a pumpkin on his head.

Eddie gawks at this because what the fuck. He manages to climb out of the hole where he stares watching as the other skeleton puts a pumpkin over his skull and. . . “Shit! They’re all skeletons!” 

“EDDIE!” shouts Richie coming back and coming back real fast only to trip over his own feet when he sees skeletons wearing pumpkins’ for faces. “Oh, that’s real fucked up.”

“You came back!” Eddie gawks at Richie.

“Um. . .Eds, I never left.”

“Oh. . .”

Bev flies down close to Eddie’s face before heading towards the woods again. Before she’s far, she shouts back to them, “Psst, it’s time to go.”

Richie grabs onto Eddie when he makes it over to him. “Come on.” They both are equally distracted by the fact that there are walking skeletons. “Oh my God, are they. . .all skeletons?”

Enoch is there swaying close to them. His voice returns to being more quiet. “What a wonderful harvest. Someday you’ll join us again.” He turns his attention to Richie. “You sure you want to leave?” And Richie nods several times. Enoch next looks at Eddie. “We’ll see you again in twenty-seven years.”

“It makes me really uncomfortable that you all keep saying that.”

“Why don't I get a number?” Richie interrupts.

Again, Bev does a fly by. “Richie! Eddie! Adelaide’s!”

Richie guides Eddie away from Pottsfield. He lets go and the two of them fall in sync with one another as they head out with Bev. She flies ahead leading them straight back into the woods. None of them mention whatever the fuck happened back there. _They’re all skeletons_. Richie and Eddie stay close. Richie is so quiet making the moment more uncomfortable without his consistent attempts at proving he’s hilarious. It leaves Eddie all stuck up in thoughts about how they were _all skeletons_ who kept reminding him he’s twenty-seven years too early for something without ever defining the precise _something_ they meant. Skeletons telling him “too early” can’t be good, none of it can be good, it’s not any good.

Those crooked trees lean close to the ground, but at least the sun is out for them. A few leaves fall off on the wind, they’re a light red as the world is changing. Eddie swats them away like they’re instead a fly bothering him nonstop.

“Glad we weren’t in any danger back there,” Richie breaks the silence.

_Too early_. Eddie looks at him with one of those half-smiles. “Where’s your frog?”

“Oh! Fuck! Eddie!”

“Huh?”

“No, I named the frog Eddie.”

“That’s. . .confusing. . .” Richie looks around the path before taking a few steps back toward Pottsfield when he hears a croak. “Bev, I’ll be right back.”

Bev has to land on a branch to look over at them. “What? No! Richie! We gotta. . .”

“He has to go get Eddie,” Eddie tells her.

“But you’re. . .”

“Oh yeah, I know, but the frog’s named Eddie now. Not Eds. Not Eddie Spaghetti, but Eddie..” 

Richie is still gone, he’s off the path making his way through some twisted bushes and Eddie follows him. Bev, too. He has to fight some branches and trips over more. At some point he thinks, his inhaler is back there still lying in a hole where those fingers had been. Eddie gets up to wipe dirt off his pants and sees Richie standing close by on another trail through the woods with his frog in hand.

“To Adelaide’s?”

“To Adelaide’s.” Eddie smiles and nods.

“Good, to Adelaide’s then.” Bev takes off. “We can go this way, too.”

Again, Richie and Eddie are side-by-side with a bonus Eddie in Richie’s arms. 

“Why do you want to go to Adelaide’s?” Eddie asks Bev, but she doesn’t respond.

Richie leans forward a bit struggling to release a big yawn into his elbow while holding onto his frog friend. The silence returns and it doesn’t look like an end is in sight. There is tree after tree with other plants creeping into the path and more leaves starting to fall catching the wind. Eddie continues to swat them out of the way as they move along. He hesitates after striking one. It flips around a whole lot before almost hitting a little sign that’s falling over.

The top says: Pottsfield. An arrow points them in the direction they just came from.

The bottom says: Kitchener Ironworks. An arrow points them in the direction they’re going on the way to visit Adelaide.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're enjoying this, please drop a comment.
> 
> I'm hoping to start Schooltown Follies with a bit more of a Derry twist and another Loser will be joining us and sticking with us for the rest of the time.


End file.
